I've used MS Installer class to provide custom actions during setup in a few projects(e.g.see Using VS 2005 Web Setup Project with custom actions).
However if you have some complex logic to do as a part of setup, it is possible that some exception will occur.
I don't like to hide exceptions, and they are shown to the user,causing installation to rollback.
It is not good, becuse sometimes user wants to ignore exception and use installation even if some custom action failed.
I found that moving code from custom action to executable gives more flexibility,as well as allow to use the same program to customize installation later just by running the same exe.
The Visual Studio SetupProject allowes to specify Custom Action as executable,not as Installer Class.
However during Uninstall,Repair etc, Executable Custom Action can be invoke not as programmer initially designed,and it is required to specify conditions for custom actions. Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems trying to set correct conditions(see Custom action condition to run for a new or upgraded product.and Intermittent execution of custom action for installation of product upgrade. )
To avoid these problems with Executable Custom Action I desided to return back to Installer Class Custom action, but in Install method the only task is to start executable and executable will do all required customization of installation.
You can see the code of the class here.
posted @ Monday, October 23, 2006 11:14 PM